Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it expects the overall semiconductor industry to return to growth next year after a prolonged period of inventory correction.
TSMC said that is a positive sign for the industry, which might head for a recovery next quarter.
“Inventory correction in the industry would be mostly finished by the end of this year,” TSMC co-chief executive officer Mark Liu (劉德音) said in a keynote speech during the company’s annual Supply Chain Management Forum in Hsinchu.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
“When we enter next year with a healthy level of inventory, we expect the semiconductor industry to return to growth trajectory,” Liu said.
Two months ago, Liu said he was not sure about the inventory correction issue and told investors that some uncertainties remained for the industry this quarter.
In October, TSMC cut its forecast for the world semiconductor industry’s revenue growth to zero this year from its previously estimated annual expansion of 3 percent.
The company is expected to outstrip the overall semiconductor industry next year, thanks to a market share gain from the 16-nanometer (nm) technology, Liu said, adding that the new technology would help the chipmaker continue to grow its annual revenue next year.
This year, TSMC is likely to grow its revenue by double digits from last year’s NT$762.81 billion (US$23.16 billion), partly because of the New Taiwan dollar’s depreciation against the US dollar and the company’s advances in technology, Liu said.
TSMC started mass producing 16nm chips in the third quarter and expects to launch a compact version of 16nm chips, mostly for low-end smartphones, in the second quarter of next year and start producing 10nm chips from the fourth quarter of next year, he said.
The company plans to start construction of a new production line in February at its Taichung factory, which is expected to produce 10nm chips to be used in various applications such as mobile phones, he said.
In its effort to push for more advanced technologies, TSMC is scheduled to start early production of 7nm chips in the first quarter of 2017 and is preparing to develop 5nm technology, Liu said.
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
STABLE RESULTS: Despite June’s lower consolidated revenue, second-quarter sales still reached a record high, driven by demand for chips for AI applications Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$263.71 billion (US$9.02 billion) for last month, its second-lowest monthly result this year. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement that its revenue last month only fared better than the NT$260.01 billion posted in February. Last month’s figure rose 26.9 percent from a year earlier, but slumped 17.7 percent from May, the company said. However, second-quarter revenue reached NT$933.8 billion, a record high for a single quarter, company data showed. The figure represented growth of 11.26 percent from the first quarter and 38.6 percent from a year earlier. Previously, TSMC said that
RSS